This invention relates to a new headpiece or a peg box for string instruments as in the viol class and the guitar class with the front of the peg box closed.
Conventionally, those stringed instruments which have a finger board or a fret board have their strings terminate at the outward portion of the instrument in a peg box or key box. Most of these instruments fall in the viol and guitar classes. In the viol class, the peg box is open to the front; in the guitar class, the key box is open all the way through. The strings are brought up along the finger board of fret board across the nut into the peg box. There they are wound up to adjust the string tension which controls the frequency of spring vibration and thus the tone. While they are called strings, in many of these instruments the string is of stell wire and, in any event, the string is very stiff. When the string is wrapped around the adjusting tags or shaft, the free end of the string can extend from the open side of a peg box. This is unsightly and can hurt the instrumentalist.